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Italy PV technology status and prospects S. Castello, ENEA S. Guastella, CESI |
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Since the early eighties Italy has been involved in a wide photovoltaic program, ranging from research on materials to the development of medium and large grid-connected power plants. ENEA (the Italian Agency for New Technology, Energy and Environment), ENEL spa (the largest Italian Utility) and some Italian PV industries (Eurosolare, Helios Technology, ANIT SpA and Gechelin Group,) have been the most active operators.Currently, on technology side, crystalline silicon cells, amorphous silicon integrated modules and hetero-junction devices are developed by ENEA, while improvements are being studied on a completely integrated production process developed by Eurosolare.
From the systems point of view, the total cumulative PV power installed in Italy at the end of the year 2000 is expected to be about 19 MWp. Rural electrification, off-grid domestic applications, grid-connected centralized systems and grid-connected distributed systems, constitute the most important sectors of the Italian market, which is still showing a behaviour strongly dependent on subsidized projects. The experimental phase on medium and large size grid-connected plants has demonstrated the technical maturity and reliability of this technology, but distributed generation became more and more dominant all over the world. In this context experimental activities in this field have been carried out mainly by ENEA during the last years. Besides, the Italian Ministry of Environment and Industry have defined in cooperation with ENEA the Italian Rooftop Program, also in consideration of the new emerging world-wide strategy for PV market penetration.
Moreover, during this year the popular acceptance for this technology is sharply increased mainly driven by environmental and climatic concerns. In particular, a wide interest to the Italian Rooftop Program of both private and public end-users, Utilities, first of all ENEL, and PV Industries has been proved.
In year 2000, in the frame of the privatization of the Italian electric system and the consequent reorganization of the National Electric Company (ENEL), CESI acquired from ENEL its R&D activities in generation, transmission, distribution, end-use of electricity, environment and renewable energies. In this way, CESI became a high-qualified reference for researches on the national electric system and, in particular, for the Italian Independent System Operator, which is a CESI shareholder.
In the same time, ENEL established ERGA, a wholly owned subsidiary to grow its existing set of competencies and assets in the renewable energy segment of its business. With the recent acquisition of the company CHI ENERGY, which represents ENEL's entry into North American Market, ERGA became the world's largest company dedicated exclusively to renewable energy.
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Photovoltaic activities, in Italy, are currently focused on two main lines, namely R&D on materials and devices and on the Italian Rooftop Program. This Program is intended to widely diffuse the PV rooftop technology in Italy, by means of the installation of PV systems for distributed generation with a final capacity of 50 MW.
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Activities on material and devices are focused on a-Si/c-Si hetero-junction, developed in ENEA Portici Laboratories for future industrial applications. Interesting results have demonstrated the feasibility of the process on full size multicrystalline substrates with an efficiency of 13%. Moreover, to improve the efficiency and stability of devices, both single-junction and tandem structures are investigated at Portici Laboratories The process steps for an amorphous p-i-n solar cell exceeding 11% efficiency have been scaled-up to a large area reactor allowing the fabrication of a 900 cm2 module with an initial efficiency of 8,5% and a stable efficiency of 7,3%. At the ENEA Casaccia Laboratories crystalline silicon devices based on laser assisted processes or on advanced screen-printing technologies have been currently realized with efficiency greater than 16%.
The cooperation program between ENEA and Eurosolare, aimed at upgrading the production processes through a strongly innovative pilot line, is almost completed. The line is based on the "buried contact cells" simplified concept with an efficiency of 15%, developed by M. Green patent and partially financed by ENEA.
In the field of systems and components, activities on small grid-connected plants, as prototypes of roof mounted systems are carried out by ENEA in Manfredonia test facility and in Portici Center. Performances of these plants are analyzed in terms of energy output, energy losses, power quality, operation and maintenance procedures.
Analysis and tests on medium and large power plants have been carried out by ENEA on Delphos 600 kWp (1 unit of 300 kWp and 3 units of 100 kWp, called PLUG) grid-connected plant, on Alta Nurra PLUG and on Vulcano PLUG, to test the high penetration of PV in a small isolated grid.
Furthermore performance evaluation of PV components and plants have been carried out by CESI on ERGA plants (3,3 MWp Serre plant, 80 kWp Vulcano plant and 72 kWp Adrano Test field) and on several stand-alone plants owned by ENEL Distribution (in all over the Italian territory), in order to assess long-term behaviour of PV technology in different climatic conditions and in different electric configurations.
In the framework of preliminary activities foreseen by the Italian Rooftop Program, during the year 2000 ten small pilot plants have been installed by ENEA on public buildings of Municipalities and Universities in some important Italian cities, while other three prototypes are under construction. Moreover, is still in progress the data collection and analysis, by CESI and ENEA, of the first five pilot plants realized in close cooperation between ENEA and ENEL in June 1999.
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Initiatives from Utilities are evident in ENEL's program aimed at the achievement of energy significance of renewable energy sources. Besides, some Local Utilities have showed an increasing interest on Photovoltaics starting or continuing their demonstration PV programmes.
Moreover, both ENEL and Local Utilities have demonstrated their strong consensus to the connection of the plant to the grid, cooperating with ENEA to overcame some technical barriers, such as grid interface devices, grid-connection requirements and plant maintenance.
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The major PV module manufacturer is Eurosolare (totally controlled by ENI, the National Board for Fuel Supply) with a staff of about 70 people. Its manufacturing facilities have a production capability of 2,5 MWp/year per shift. Both single-crystal and poly-crystalline silicon cells are currently produced; polycrystalline wafers are home made, while single crystal wafers are bought on the international market. Eurosolare production includes also specially designed modules for rooftops and facades. Eurosolare's module manufacturing process is completely integrated and comprehends the fabrication of polycrystalline silicon wafers, cells and modules.It is worth mentioning that Eurosolare carries out R&D on wafer, cell and module production. On the overall, in 2000 the Eurosolare module production is expected to be 1,5 MWp.
The second Italian module manufacturer is Helios Technology. Its manufacturing facilities have a production capability of 2,2 MWp/year. In 2000 the Helios Technology module production is expected to be 2 MWp. Helios Technology module manufacturing process comprehends the fabrication of cells and modules from mono-crystalline silicon wafers.
In the field of PV system it is worth mentioning that both Eurosolare and Helios Technology activities include the commercialization, design and turn key supply of PV system. Other industrial operators in this field are A.N.I.T., Gechelin Group, SEI, Artistica and all the companies included in the Italian PV Firms Group (GIFI).
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Up to now the national PV market has been showing behaviour strongly dependent on subsidized projects. In particular, the sector of PV plants for power generation has been strongly boosted by the financial support coming from the government, the European Community, ENEL and ENEA projects.
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In addition, some strategic benefits are expected during the Program concerning the diffusion of the photovoltaic technology and of the environmental awareness and the expansion of the market. Moreover a "driven" decrease of photovoltaic costs, the creation of job opportunities and the local development in unfavoured regions is expected as well.
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